OpenAI: AI Financial Account Linking Raises Privacy Risks

AI firms are looking to connect to financial accounts, raising privacy concerns among experts. OpenAI announced a new ChatGPT feature allowing users to link their financial accounts for personal finance advice. This feature is supported by Plaid and will also be powered by Intuit. It's currently available for paid ChatGPT Pro subscribers and will roll out to Plus users, with the goal of making it available to everyone. The platform can integrate information from over 12,000 financial institutions, including major banks and investment firms. Once connected, users get a dashboard showing portfolio performance, spending, and upcoming payments. OpenAI says over 200 million people monthly use ChatGPT for financial advice. The feature is supported by improvements in GPT-5.5, an advanced AI model. ChatGPT aims to combine reasoning with financial context to help users with their goals. Users can disconnect accounts and erase "financial memories." "Temporary chats" are also offered. However, privacy and cybersecurity experts are concerned these safeguards might not fully protect user privacy. This matters because linking financial data to AI raises significant questions about the security of personal information.